If you have an online store, congratulations! You’re firmly on your way to tapping into the incredibly vast consumer market that shops online.

But to do so, you need to invest in search engine optimization. Did we just hear you say you already have an SEO strategy in place? Awesome! Is it, however, working the way it should?

Here are 8 signs your store needs SEO expert services.

1. You’re an Entrepreneur, Not an SEO Specialist

Entrepreneurs are known to wear many hats because they manage several aspects of their businesses. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to find online store owners taking a stab at SEO.

Well, SEO is a different kind of monster.

If you don’t have the professional knowledge to design and deploy an SEO strategy, it’s highly unlikely you’ll do it right. In fact, there is zero chance. Between staying on top of search engine algorithm updates and refreshes, creating content and building links, it’s easy for confusion to step in.

Therefore, if you’re handling your own SEO, that’s the first sign you need SEO expert services. It doesn’t matter whether you think you’re already killing it. There is much more potential an expert can help you reach.

If your knowledge of search engines doesn’t go beyond basic keyword research, it’s easy to think all you need to rank is create a website and post some content.

You must submit your site for indexing.

And that’s not all. If you leave it at that, your site will be ranked somewhere in the trenches of the deep web.

Your goal, as is the goal of every website owner, is to attain a first-page ranking. Why?

You see, the first-ranked result on Google gets 33 percent of the traffic, while the second gets 18 percent. As you go further down, the share of search traffic shrinks drastically.

If your online store is not showing up among the top search engine results – let alone the first page – it’s time to pick up the phone and dial a couple of SEO expert services.

3. Your Sales Are Not Growing

Starting an e-commerce business is far more profitable than a brick-and-mortar store, you were told.

But a couple of months after launch, you’ve only made a handful of sales. You start wondering whether the e-retail business model is any more profitable than the model of a physical store.

If you’re in this situation, there is something you are doing wrong. It’s indeed true that e-stores are more profitable. One, you have access to a wider market and two, typical expenses such as rent are low or eliminated.

If you’re not seeing any meaningful increase in sales, you’re probably lacking a solid SEO strategy.

Hiring an SEO specialist is the best way forward, since he or she will come on board, evaluate your current strategy, identify weaknesses and implement the necessary measures to ensure your store’s website gets the ranking it deserves.

4. Your Store Doesn’t Have a Local Presence

What local presence?

We don’t blame you for asking such a question! Local doesn’t only apply to physical shops.

On the web, you can choose to target a local audience (people accessing the internet from your local area), national audience (internet users across the country) or a global audience.

If you’re a small online store, you probably lack the resources and expertise to cater to a global audience. That’s a preserve of the big boys like Amazon and eBay. But if your product appeals to a global market, like this Bridge & Burn otter wax, nothing stops you from going international.

Otherwise, it’s more effective for small online stores to focus on local customers.

To do this, you need to implement a local SEO strategy, so that when internet users in your locality search for brands near them, your online store will show up.

Try searching for your store’s name together with your location and see if it shows up in the local search results. For instance, if you sell collector coins and are based in Portland, OR, try searching “collector coins for sale in Portland, OR.”

Is your store on the first (or even second) page of search results?

No?

Get in touch with SEO expert services as soon as possible.

5. Website Traffic Is Declining

The more the people visit a physical store, the higher the sales it makes. Similarly, an online store that receives high volume web traffic is more likely to make more sales, as long as its lead conversion strategy is on point.

Now, perhaps you store has been receiving good traffic, then one morning your log into your analytics dashboard and you find the traffic is gone.

Before you activate panic mode, you need to know that SEO could be the reason your traffic is gone. Perhaps the search engine updated its ranking algorithms, punishing your site in the process.

Recovering from an SEO penalty can be a difficult task, especially when you are not an expert. The quickest way to overcome the penalty and regain your ranking – and even go higher – is to work with expert SEO services.

These professionals spend their time monitoring search engines, so they know exactly what to do to ensure your website plays to the tune of the search engines.

Get SEO Expert Services and Watch Your Online Store Explode!

OK, not really explode, but you catch the drift.

The online marketplace is fiercely competitive. Market leaders are not showing any signs of slowing down, and several small online stores are launching every day.

Investing in SEO expert services will help ensure your business makes the most of its digital marketing dollar, increase your sales and fatten your bottom line.